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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22612333">On a Night Like This</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrenchcoatRats/pseuds/TrenchcoatRats'>TrenchcoatRats</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, the inherent romance in pretending to be someone else</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 17:54:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22612333</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrenchcoatRats/pseuds/TrenchcoatRats</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Melanie never got around to spending time like she wanted to with Sasha. Maybe with this new Sasha she could have a nice night, a nice dinner. As long as she ignores this twisting in her stomach, whether it's from nerves, apprehension or...feelings. Just because she didn't look a thing like the other Sasha, that didn't make her any less beautiful to look at.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Not Sasha James/Melanie King, Sasha James/Melanie King (one-sided)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives Rare Pairs 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>On a Night Like This</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/olio/gifts">olio</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Melanie starts to storm out of the Institute, uncaring of how she looks to any staff or visitors. She can’t handle being here a second longer or else she’ll run right on back and really give Jon a piece of her mind. The absolute <em> nerve </em> of him to talk to her like that, whether he meant to gaslight her or is genuinely that oblivious to the goings-on of his own assistants that he can’t distinguish one from the other. She knows who Sasha is, had spent the too few conversations taking her in, watching fondly as the other woman gestures excitedly as she speaks, talking about her coworkers, how ugly this vertical striped shirt she’d thrifted looked now that she looked at it in proper lighting, taking in how Sasha laughed, bright, loud, and uncaring of how it broke the silence around her. Melanie knows very well who that Sasha is, had idly daydreamed once or twice about taking her out to that Indian place Sasha mentioned wanting to try with Tim one night before they did trivia.</p><p>And now there wasn’t a trace of her to be found.</p><p> </p><p>She’s about forty feet from the exit, the two doors existing less as something tangible and more of a goal line, like if she crosses that she can put this all out of her mind and stop worrying about it all. Before she can reach them though, she collides with someone, sending their metal water bottle falling and clanging to the ground along with Melanie herself. As soon as her brain catches up with what’s just happened, a hand outstretched to her.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry ‘bout that, Melanie. Guess I wasn’t paying too much attention coming through, got caught up in post-lunch haze.” The voice is familiar, and when she’s smoothly pulled up to her feet the face is only slightly less so. She thinks with a surprising level of certainty that this is the other assistant, the second Sasha. She’s never been the best with keeping new faces in her mind, but this one seems to have stayed. </p><p> </p><p>More surprising still is, rather than any frustration at the cause of her current emotional state, before she can stop herself Melanie stumbles out a, “If you’ve already gotten lunch, wanna do dinner?”</p><p> </p><p>This Sasha who she hardly knows lights up, smiling brightly, showing off a slight gap in her front teeth. “I was wondering when you were going to ask me out,” she says lightly, like this isn’t only the second or third time they’ve actually met.</p><p> </p><p>Still with no clue what she was doing Melanie keeps talking. “I mean it’s as good a time as any to get to know you.”</p><p> </p><p>Sasha smiles still, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a notepad, scribbling out an address before tearing it off to hand to Melanie.</p><p> </p><p>“I’d love to talk more, but I’ve got to run and get started on work again. I already took a long lunch as is, don’t want to have to stay late and cancel on you.”</p><p> </p><p>Melanie watches her head up over towards the archives, waiting until Sasha was completely gone before looking at the scrap. On it was the address to the same Indian place the other Sasha had told her about. </p><p> </p><p>She feels her stomach twist up into knots reading that address, not too dissimilar to how she felt hearing Sasha, her Sasha, laugh for the first time. Melanie looks one more time at the hallway Sasha had disappeared in before finally, finally making her way out of that damn Institute, choosing to think about the feeling in her stomach as anticipation rather than anything else. She’d only recently met Sasha anyway. There was no reason to be catching anything resembling feelings this early on.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the next chapter will be the date itself! I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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